As Donald Trump makes a show of “walking back” his statements in Helsinki—by attacking intelligence officials, refusing to state that Vladimir Putin lied, and proclaiming there was nothing wrong with what he said in Helsinki—others in his White House are ready to carry the ball for Team Trump–Putin. Department of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen showed on Thursday that she was ready to completely ignore two years of intelligence assessments.
Nielsen was speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, where current and former intelligence officials are lining up to talk about such topics as “America first” and “The new Cold War.” Nielsen’s proclaimed ignorance on the intentions of the Russians in 2016 comes immediately before a panel titled “Defending Democratic Institutions: Election 2018 and Beyond.” Later in the day, the discussion of “Confronting Global Cyber Threats” will include Rod Rosenstein.
But either routing thousands of small children to coloring-book concentration camps takes up so much time that Niesen hasn’t had time to check in on the other 99.9 percent of what her job entails—or she’s covering up for Trump to the extent that she’s continuing to devalue the men and women who work for her and disrupt the effectiveness of the US intelligence community. Or both.
While Trump has been reluctantly dragged into saying this week into an admission of Russian interference in the 2016 election, both Trump and right-wing media have been eager to downplay a coordinated military assault on US institutions as “meddling,” and Trump has still yet to admit to the unanimous conclusion of every agency—and the US Senate investigation: The Russians acted to aid Trump.
In making this statement, Nielsen is undermining the intelligence community, and providing a fresh win for Vladimir Putin … who really might be getting tired of winning.